And the Charm of Strangeness
by The Black Sun's Daughter
Summary: There is no home like the one you've got, because that home belongs to you. Even if it is a very strange and odd sort of family that nobody else is ever really going to understand, as two brothers discuss.


Jacob was in charge of the shopping because he was the only one of them that actually knew how to cook something that didn't come with step-by-step instructions on a box, not to mention possessed an extremely practical disposition when it came to that sort of thing. Eve wrote a list, knowing everyone's preferences and dietary requirements; sometimes Flynn would wander out from his study like a confused hermit blinking in the light of day, offering to drive until Eve reminded him what happened the _last_ time he tried to drive, at which point he'd just mutter and shuffle off again.

Eve dealt with Jenkins when the old caretaker got fractious, and Lamia kicked them all out of bed whenever the Clippings Book went off. Ezekiel kept them all in movie nights, bad coffee, and wild stories. Flynn kept them all in worse coffee, wilder stories, and insane leaps of genius. Cassandra kept them in sweets, math-spouting cuddles, and explanations for the leaps of genius, some of which were more believable than others.

Eve slept with Flynn most of the time, but sometimes with Cassandra. Ezekiel had somehow wormed his way past Lamia's prickly barriers after the new Guardian became a permanent fixture in the Library, so it was her bed he usually curled up in. Jake slept with Cassandra most nights, but sometimes with Lamia. And on the really bad nights, there was a room that came and went as it was needed, with a bed large enough that they could all sprawl in it together, like kittens sleeping in a warm pile.

"This is weird," Eliot said forthrightly, during one of those odd, sporadic visits where he sometimes came to see his brother in the Library; sometimes, Jake would go visit him at the brewpub. They were getting used to seeing each other again, after nearly twenty years' worth of estrangement.

Jake shrugged. "No weirder than your little ménage. And it works for us."

"Not weirder than magic," Ezekiel said cheerfully, then swore when he hit his head on the top of the cabinet as he dug around under the sink for…something, Jake wasn't sure.

"It's just me, Parker, and Hardison, though. It's just the three of us. Not…how many of you are there now? Nine? Ten?" he asked, his eyes full of teasing humor.

"Six, thank you very much."

Cassandra came in and jumped up onto the countertop next to the stove, thumping the heels of her Doc Martins against the cupboards. She fixed Eliot with a direct gaze and said matter-of-factly, "If you guys want to join us, you'll need to ask a lot nicer than that."

Eliot blushed bright red.

Jake snorted into his mug.

Just then, Eve walked into the kitchen, looked between the brothers, and narrowed her eyes. "What's going on in here?" she asked.

"Nothing," Cassandra, Jake, and Eliot said at once, with nonchalance in varying degrees of convincing.

Guardian Light, as Ezekiel teasingly called her, gave another look around the kitchen and fixed Cassandra and Jake with a firm glance. "Behave, the both of you," she ordered before turning and walking back into the hallway to answer a shout of her name from Flynn.

Eliot watched her go, then looked back at Jake. "When did all this start, anyways?"

"Dunno, honestly," he admitted. "We've always kinda...looked after each other, when we got banged up on a job, an'..." He shrugged uncomfortably. "I dunno."

Lamia, Guardian Dark to Ezekiel, shuffled into the kitchen with her dark curls standing up all over the place, wearing a pair of silk pajama shorts and one of Jake's flannel shirts, misbuttoned. She brushed one hand over Jake's hair as she passed him on the way to the coffeemaker, aimed a side-swiping kick at Ezekiel's butt, and kissed Cassandra's shoulder, then retrieved her novelty penguin mug from the cupboard and began fixing her daily dose of life-affirming caffeine.

"It's never felt like we don't belong here," she said after taking the first long sip, and there was a hesitant, uneasy note to her voice that made Jake want to hug her.

Ezekiel let out a victorious, "Ha!" and sprang to his feet with a glass bottle clasped in one hand. He ruffled Lamia's hair as he passed, and she made another kick at his backside, though her aim suffered from lack of full consciousness. He bounced out of the kitchen, and they smiled after him, save for Eliot, who rolled his eyes.

"It's a big place, the Library. With all the magic and power," Jake said. "And it's very easy to feel very small in it. Lost, too. It's damn well unusual now, more so than before, but we ain't lost. Or...maybe we still are, but we're lost together. And that works."

"Yeah." Eliot's gaze drifted around the kitchen, which looked like the mad scientist and the sorcerer's apprentice had tried to furnish it together, a juxtaposing mixture of the old and the new, the magical and the mundane. Lamia's beta, Mr. Fish, swam happily in a repurposed brandy snifter on the windowsill next to a rare glass flower from Shangri-La that Jenkins was trying to coax into blooming. "I can see that."

Jake grinned.

The following Friday, when he made his usual shopping trip, he made a few amendments to the usual list. He got Lamia's coffee, Eve's trail mix, and Flynn's peanut butter, along with his own kettle chips, Ezekiel's wholegrain pasta, and Cassandra's assorted candy. But he also added Parker's preferred cereal, Hardison's orange soda and gummy frogs, and Eliot's red currant jelly, along with Nate's good whiskey and Sophie's tea. Jake knew that the crew would never be a permanent fixture around the Library like he and his fellow Librarians and their Guardians were. He knew that Sophie and Nate would probably never partake in a game of Musical Beds, as Ezekiel oh-so-charmingly put it, even if the other three did decide to join in. But they were family, and there was always room for them, even if it was just for a little while.

The cashier raised both eyebrows at the size and variety. "Having a party?" she hazarded.

Jake smiled and shrugged. "Nah, just a big family at home."


End file.
